Strategy for Urban Development and Disaster Management
- WD Team

If Mumbai is to come out of the present messy situation and emerge as a global class city, it will need a directly elected Mayor, who will be fully accountable to the city, says Sanjay Ubale, Secretary (Special Projects) to Government of Maharashtra. Speaking on the occasion of ‘Osaka Round Table Conference of Asia Pacific's 12 Business Partner Cities (BPC) was addressing the ‘Strategy for urban development and disaster management- sharing of experiences among Asia Pacific cities’.

    

“Bureaucrats like me and Dr. T. Chandrashekhar Metropolitan Commissioner of MMRDA can implement only the policies laid down by the government. But what is required from us is certain new policies providing for restructuring of governance, which will by the government," said Mr. Ubale.

Indian Merchants' Chamber hosted the conference, close on the heels of its 100th Foundation Day Celebrations, as its gift to Mumbai city. The city could share the experiences of other Asia Pacific cities and draw lessons for its development process. IMC President Mr. Nayan Patel welcomed the delegates and felicitated the speakers.

Among those who addressed the conference were: Yoshihide Kuzumoto, General Director of Economic Bureau, Osaka City Government; Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman of IMC’s infrastructure and housing committee; Suresh Kotak, Chairman, BPC Osaka Conference, IMC; Nasser Munjee, President of Development Finance Corporation; Ms. Loretta WAN, Regional Director, South East Asia and India, Hong Kong Trade Development Council; Phairush Burapachaisri, Deputy Secretary-General, Board of Trade of Thailand and Thai Chamber of Commerce, Bangkok. Representatives from Jakarta, Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City, Melbourne and Tianjin also made presentations.

Sanjay Ubale said several government authorities were at present independently engaged in a host of complex civic functions and infrastructure development in Mumbai, often working at cross-purposes. “Also, these institutions individually do not have incentives to drive them forward and deliver efficiently. As a result, it is all fire-fighting in respect of one or the other civic function every day. As these functions are highly complex, it is necessary to create separate professional bodies like BEST to deal with each of them. I call it BEST-ization of the BMC’s functions,” spoke Ubale.

Mr. Ubale also stressed on the need for urgent reforms in the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCRA) and review of regulations for development of coastal zones and salt pan lands re-look at the Floor Space Index (FSI) norms and reconsideration of Rent Control rules, besides addressing environmental concerns. Dr. Chandrashekhar said that unlike other Asia Pacific cities, authorities in Mumbai were handling resettlement and rehabilitation of more than 2,00,000 families, that’s over one million people. “We are transplanting the whole communities at new townships, all equipped with civic infrastructures. Recently, we completed 22,000 tenements, built 31 townships, all in public-private partnership,” spoke Dr. Chandrashekhar.

According to Mr. Nasser Munjee, “China spent $40 billion to develop Shanghai. We have a vision for Mumbai but need to work on the extensive database and planning. The challenges faced by Mumbai city are: ownership, transformation and professionalism in implementing them.

Ms. Loretta Wan shared an insight about the great city Hong Kong. “42% of the FDI in China actually comes from Hong Kong. We have more than 4500 regional offices of global businesses in Hong Kong. It has become a premier sourcing and selling hub. It is also Asia’s trade fair capital.” This should be emulated by Mumbai, since it is the financial capital of India.

Mr. Phairush Burapachaisri outlined the important factors that has converted Bangkok into a modern city from the once a bustling and cluttered city in the last decade. 1. Good management systems. 2. Administrative Policy. 3. Accountability and 4. Efficiency. “We took each department, created policies and implemented for the good mental and physical health of the citizens.” The segments where the Bangkok government took into account were: Transport, environment, education, security, quality of life, economic and architectural policies.

Ho Chi Minh City in China saw strategic changes in three parts. “Firstly, we gathered experiences, lessons and our points of view of how to plan, develop and control the urbanization process. Second was to tackle the economic structure changes to create a foundation to restructure the urbanization. The third part was to manage disaster crisis,” spoke Mr. Do Xuan Ha, deputy director, HCMC People’s Committee Service of Trade.

Jakarta City also followed a strategy to make it an International competing city. They deciphered the trends and problems, revised the issues of public transport policies, looked into legal reforms of infrastructure, preventing deluge situations, facilitating trade and strengthening Jakarta Chamber of Commerce and industry programme.

Councilor Fiona Snedden and Geoff Lawler represented Australia, especially the neat city of Melbourne. With a 3.6 million population and daily visitors numbering 6, 00,000 has a framework for urban development that is aimed till the year 2030. Melbourne is also the host for the Commonwealth Games 2006. The strategy Melbourne has followed is the most envious of all. Mumbai should take a leaf from their planning book rather than just dream of converting Mumbai into Shanghai. Melbourne is simply Melbourne in all respects and the culture has been maintained at all levels.

The sharing of views, news and future made everyone excited but how far is Mumbai willing to go? In fact no one even knows who owns Mumbai? Who really is responsible? Is it the central, state or city government? Start thinking and acting Mumbai. It is indeed high time and the world looks upon us and waiting for us to bloom.